~ faith, family and resistance in early modern England

Category Archives: Finch

My exploration of a network of recusant families in Elizabethan and Jacobean Kent and Sussex began with the Langworth family, and specifically with the children of Dr John Langworth, the cleric and poet who was reputed to be a church papist. Having examined the life of John Langworth’s daughter Helen, who married Nathaniel Spurrett and whose daughter Frances joined an exiled Franciscan convent, I turned my attention to Helen’s sister Mary, who married into the Catholic Hawkins family of Boughton-under-Blean near Canterbury. I’ve taken a roundabout route to finally arrive at Mary herself, having followed a number of detours to explore the Hawkins family and their connections with other noted Catholic families, such as the Hildesleys, Finches and Knatchbulls. In recent posts I’ve written about Mary’s three brothers-in-law: the poet and translator Sir Thomas Hawkins the younger, the physician, translator and grammarian John Hawkins, and the Jesuit priest and author Henry Hawkins; and about her three sisters-in-law: Susan Finch of Grovehurst, Anne Hildesley of Little Stoke, and Benedict Hawkins who joined the exiled Benedictine community in Brussels.

Parish church of St Peter and St Paul, Boughton-under-Blean

Now it’s time to turn to Mary Langworth, who married Richard Hawkins, yet another Hawkins sibling. The parish register of Boughton-under-Blean includes the following entry for 1581:

The 28th of Decebr was bapt. Rychard Haukyns the sonne of Thomas Haukyns, Ju., gent.

(Note: the person referred to here as Thomas Hawkins junior was the man I have been calling Sir Thomas Hawkins the elder, who was in fact the son of yet another Thomas Hawkins.) Like his brothers and sisters, Richard was born at Nash Court, Boughton, while Mary, his future wife, would have grown up either in nearby Canterbury, where her father Dr John Langworth served as Prebendary until his death in 1614, or at one of the country properties that he is said to have owned, possibly even closer to Boughton. I don’t have a record of their marriage, but I would imagine it took place some time in the first decade of the seventeenth century, either in the closing years of Elizabeth’s reign or in the early years of the reign of King James I.

Oast house at Selling, Kent (via wikipedia)

We can ascertain a certain amount about Richard and Mary Hawkins from the Who were the Nuns? website. From this we learn that their daughter Anne, who was born in about 1610, joined the Franciscans in Brussels, being clothed on 15th September 1629 at the age of 17, and taking the additional name Bonaventure. Her cousin Frances Spurrett had joined the same convent a few years earlier and was actually professed two days after Anne’s clothing. The website provides us with some clues about Anne’s family. For example, we learn that they lived at Selling, about three miles south of Boughton. But we also learn that Anne was born in Clerkenwell, leading us to assume that the Hawkinses also kept a house in London – although, intriguingly, her uncle Henry Hawkins, S.J., was said to live at the Jesuits’ secret residence in Clerkenwell. Anne Bonaventure Hawkins left the Franciscan convent in Brussels in 1658/9 to help found a Conceptionist community in Paris. She served there as novice mistress, portress and later as vicaress, a post which she resigned in 1680. Apparently she accompanied Abbess Elizabeth Timperley on business to England in 1662. Anne died in Paris on 4th May 1689 at the age of 79. The Hawkins family tree at the Who were the Nuns? website suggests that Richard and Mary had at least two other children. Apparently their son John married Mary Wolllascot and they had four children: Thomas Hawkins, who married Catherine Gifford; Mary Hawkins, who married James Bryan; and Susanna Joseph Hawkins and Anne Domitilla Hawkins who joined their aunt Anne’s Conceptionist convent in Paris. Another niece of Anne Hawkins who became a Conceptionist was Mary Teresa Harris, one of the two daughters of Richard and Mary Hawkins’ daughter Martha, who married Richard Harris. Richard and Martha Harris’ other daughter was named Winifred Mary.

St Beatriz da Silva, founder of the Conceptionists

Unsurprisingly, Richard Hawkins, like other members of his family, was frequently in trouble because of his recusancy. For example, in 1640 Richard’s name appeared in a list of local recusants, together with his nephew Clement Finch of Milton and his cousin William Pettit of Boughton. However, in an account of the diocese of Canterbury during the reign of Charles I we read the following:

Eventually, a few harried recusants, such as Richard Hawkins of Selling, Henry Roper of Hartlip, and Susan Finch of Preston-next-Faversham, were permitted liberty of conscience.

Richard Hawkins’ will, made in November 1640 (he died in 1642), is a useful source of information about his family and associates. For example, we learn from this document that he and Mary had another son, Charles, and two other daughters, Bennet and Katherine. I’ll share my transcription of Richard’s will in the next post.

In recent posts I’ve been exploring the lives of the children of the recusant Sir Thomas Hawkins the elder of Boughton under Blean, Kent, who died in 1617. In this post, I’m turning my attention to Thomas’ daughter Susan or Susanna. The Boughton parish register for 1580 includes the following entry:

The vith of Septebr was bapt. Susan Haukins the Daughter of Thomas Haukyns the youngr.

We know, from an account of the life of Susan’s brother, Henry Hawkins S.J., that she married John Finch of Grovehurst, at Milton next Sittingbourne, who was also said to be a recusant. Sittingbourne is about ten miles north-west of Boughton under Blean. Milton, in some documents called Middleton, is today a suburb of Sittingbourne and known as Milton Regis. A document reproduced at British History Online has this to say about Grovehurst:

Grovehurst, now usually called Grovers, is a manor situated somewhat less than a mile northward from the town of Milton. It was once the inheritance of a family of that name. Sir William de Grovehurst possessed it in the reigns of king Edward I and II as did his descendant Sir Richard Grovehurst in that of king Henry VII. At length Thomas Grovehurst, esq. in the reign of Edward VI alienated it to Clement Fynche, a branch of those of Netherfield, in Sussex, who were descended from Vincent Herbert, alias Finch, and ancestors of the several branches of this family from time to time created peers of this realm, whose arms they likewise bore.

It appears by the escheat-rolls of the 3rd year of queen Elizabeth, that he then held this manor in capite. He died in the 38th year of that reign and lies buried in the great chancel of this church, where is a monument erected to his memory, with the effigies of him, his two wives, and his son John Fynche, on it.

The thirty-eighth year of Elizabeth I’s reign was either 1595 or 1596 (my 11 x great grandfather John Manser of Wadhurst, Sussex, made his will on 26th December 1597 ‘in the fortieth yeare of the raigne of our soveraigne Lady Elizabeth’).

Finch family memorial in Holy Trinity Church, Milton Regis

John Finch’s father Clement Finch was the son of another John Finch who died in 1549. He made his will in the previous year, the third year of the reign of Edward VI, describing himself as ‘John ffynche of Myddleton nexte Syttyngborn in the Countye of Kent, gent.’ One of the executors of the will was Christopher Roper, who was almost certainly the Member of Parliament from Lynsted, the brother of William Roper who married Sir Thomas More’s daughter Margaret, and the father of John Roper, first Baron Teynham.

We learn from John Finch’s will that he was married three times. His third wife, Margaret, who was still living, had previously been married to (Robert?) Piper and by him had two sons, Richard and Robert, and two daughters, Joan and Margaret. John Finch’s two previous wives were called Ursula and Alice. Alice was previously the wife of John Knatchbull (confusingly rendered as Snachbull in the transcription that I found online) and her maiden name was Fowle. She was said to be from Tenterden. There is also mention in the will of a Thomas Fowle of Mersham Hatch, near Ashford (about fifteen miles from Tenterden), who presumably was a relative. I haven’t been able to find any link between this branch of the Fowle family and my own Fowle ancestors, who can be traced to Lamberhurst (though my supposed ancestor Bartholomew Fowle, the prior of St Mary Overie, Southwark, at the time of its dissolution, was said to be from Lynsted). The Knatchbulls also lived at Mersham.

John and Alice Knatchbull appear to have had a number of children before John’s death in 1540. I’ve been unable to find out anything about their son John, but another son, William, married Catharine Greene, daughter of John Greene. A third son, Richard, was married twice and had four daughters by each wife. He also had a number of sons, including Thomas Knatchbull, whose son Norton (1602 – 1685) was a member of Parliament and was made a baronet. A fourth Knatchbull son, Reginald, married Anne Elizabeth Crispe, daughter of William Crispe, lieutenant of Dover Castle. One of Reginald and Anne’s sons, John Norton Knatchbull, became a Jesuit, while their daughter, Elizabeth Lucy Knatchbull, joined the English Benedictines in Belgium and was the first abbess of their convent in Ghent (see this source on the relationship between brother and sister, and between the Jesuits and the Benedictines in exile). Reginald’s and Anne’s two other sons each had two daughters who also joined the Benedictines.

Mary Knatchbull, daughter of John and Alice, married Thomas Finch, son of the John Finch who died in 1549. Thomas Finch seems to have been married twice. His second marriage was to Bennet Norton, the widow of William Norton of Hernehill, and the daughter of William Maycott of Preston next Faversham, whose property Thomas would inherit. I believe that Bennet’s first husband William Norton was related to the Thomas Norton of Fordwich whose daughter Aphra was briefly married to Henry Hawkins, who after her death joined the Jesuits. Bennet Finch died in in 1612. In his will of 1615 Thomas Finch mentions ‘my brother Reginald Knatchbull’ and ‘my nephew Thomas Knatchbull’, confirming that his marriage to Mary Knatchbull had preceded his marriage to Bennet. Thomas appointed his nephew John Finch of Grovehurst as his executor and left him Preston House, also mentioning his wife ‘Suzan’.

Memorial to Thomas and Bennet Finch in Preston parish church, Kent

Thomas Finch had two brothers, Clement and Henry or Harry, both of whom are mentioned in their father’s will. Clement was the father of John Finch who married Susan Hawkins. I haven’t managed to find out much about him, but I suspect he was born in the 1540s and probably married (though we don’t have the name of his wife) in the late 1570s. However, we do know that he had another son besides John: I’ve found a baptismal record for Thomas Finch, son of Clement, in October 1580. There was also a daughter named Bennett who was christened at Milton in January 1582. She married Edward Hales of Chilham in about 1603 and they had five sons and seven daughters before Edward’s death on 10th January 1634. The will of Thomas Finch, brother of John, refers to ‘Bennet Hales, wife of Edward Hales, gent., my niece’. There is a plaque commemorating Edward and Bennet Hales in the north chancel of the parish church in Faversham (see below).

via flickr.com

I imagine that John Finch and Susanna Hawkins were married some time in the first decade of the seventeenth century, and certainly by 1608. I’ve found evidence of a Susan Finch being born to John Finch of ‘Milton at Sittingbourne’ in 1609. We also know that John and Susan Finch’s daughter Elizabeth, who would join the English Benedictine convent in Ghent, was born in 1614. Since the will of Susan’s brother Sir Thomas Hawkins the younger, written in 1639, appoints his nephew Clement Finch as an overseer, I conclude that John and Susan Finch had a son of that name.

Elizabeth Finch took the additional name Aldegonde when she joined the Benedictines. She was clothed in Ghent on 13th December 1643 at the age of 29 and professed on 5th February 1647 at the age of 31. In 1665 Elizabeth left Ghent to help found another convent in Ypres, though she only stayed a year or so, returning to her former convent before the end of 1666. She died in Ghent on 1st February 1692 at the age of 78.

There’s firm evidence that Susan Hawkins remained true to her family’s Catholic faith after her marriage to John Finch. I’ve only found second-hand evidence of John’s recusancy, but the National Archives contains at least three documents attesting to Susan’s refusal to conform to the established protestant Church. In April 1607 an indictment in the records of the West Kent Quarter Sessions stated that ‘Susan, wife of John Finche of Milton, esquire, being over sixteen years of age “did not repaire” to the parish church of Milton or any other church for the space of two months.’ A similar indictment was issued in the following year. And on 15th January 1610 an Ecclesiastical Cause paper recorded the excommunication of a number of defendants, including ‘Lady Ann HAWKINS wife of Sir Thos H Boughton Blean, Sus FINCHE wife of John F Milton by Sittingbourne gent’: in other words, Susan Finch née Hawkins and her mother.

I’m not sure when John Finch died, but I’ve found a record of Susan’s death in 1641, which states that she was a widow. I assume that the Clement Finch of Grovehurst who made his will in 1645 was John and Susan’s son. If so, then during his relatively short life (he was probably only in his forties when he died), Clement and his wife Mary, who seems to have survived him, managed to produce four sons – John, Clement, Harbert and Charles – and three daughters – Mary Ann, Elizabeth and Philip (sic). There is evidence that John, Clement Finch’s eldest son and heir, maintained the family tradition of recusancy and as a result the family continued to be penalised after Clement’s death.

Judging by his will, there is no doubt that this Clement Finch held resolutely to the faith of his fathers, the preamble being the most explicitly Catholic that I’ve yet to come across, especially when we consider that it was written at the height of the Civil War and proved during the fourth year of Cromwell’s Commonwealth:

First I bequeath my soule into the blessed hands of my deare Saviour Jesus Christ who redeemed it with his precious blood firmly beleiveing all whatsoever his Spouse the holy Catholic Church holds and teaches out of which there is noe salvation.

Benedict was the first of a number of female members of the extended Hawkins family to join one of the English monastic communities in exile. On 22nd July 1610 she was received into the English Benedictine convent in Brussels. Exactly a year later, at the age of twenty-four, she was ‘invested with the holie Habitt of St Benedict’, and a year after that she made her profession, taking the name Barbara Benedict. Her dowry was 3800 florins. Sister Barbara Benedict served as sacristan in 1623 and again in 1652. She died in 1661, at the age of 75.

Six of Benedict Hawkins’ nieces would follow her example, choosing the life of a nun in an exiled English convent, as would five of her great nieces. This was in addition to Frances Spurrett, the niece of Benedict’s brother Richard Hawkins (Frances was the daughter of Helen Langworth, sister of Richard’s wife Mary; she entered the English Franciscan convent in Brussels in 1626). Richard and Mary Hawkins had one daughter who, like Frances Spurrett, joined the Franciscans in Brussels. Benedict’s sister Susan, who married John Finch of Grovehurst, had a daughter who joined the Benedictines in Ghent. Another sister, Anne, who married William Hildesley, had four daughters, all of whom joined the Sepulchrine order in Liège.

Benedictine nuns

To a modern sensibility, the idea of sending one’s daughters to a foreign country, to live in an enclosed, celibate community for the remainder of their lives, is difficult to understand. However, the historian Caroline Bowden has argued that, in the case of the English religious communities in exile, ‘care was taken to ensure that women entered convents of their own free will and evidence has survived from many of the convents showing that candidates could, and in fact did, leave if they changed their mind about joining.’ Bowden claims that, far from resenting the experience of religious enclosure, the exiled nuns seem positively to have welcomed separation from a secular world in which they and their families had experienced persecution and had been prevented from practising their religion freely.

I’ll write about the families of Ann, Susan and Richard Hawkins in separate posts.

The last will and testament of the Catholic poet and translator, Sir Thomas Hawkins the younger, which I transcribed in the previous post, includes references to a number of members of his family. Notable by their absence from the will (probably for the same pragmatic reasons as their omission from their father’s will of 1617) are Thomas’ brother Henry, the Jesuit priest, and his sister Bennet or Benedict, a nun in Belgium, both of whom were still living. Another significant absence is Sir Thomas’ brother John, the physician and author, and it seems likely that he predeceased him.

Thomas Hawkins appoints another sibling, his ‘wellbeloved brother’ Richard Hawkins, as sole executor of his will. It was Richard who married Mary Langworth, daughter of Dr John Langworth, with whom we began this exploration of connected recusant families. I believe that Thomas’ nephew Charles and his niece Katharine, both mentioned in the will, were the children of Richard and Mary. We’ll return to them in another post.

Panel of the Hawkins monument in Boughton church, showing Sir Thomas the younger and his brothers

Thomas makes bequests to his cousins Ann and William Pettit. These were members of his late mother’s family; as mentioned in previous posts, the Pettits were another known recusant family, also resident in Boughton under Blean. The will also includes a reference to ‘Ann Breadstreet my Aunts daughter’. The will of Sir Thomas Hawkins the elder had mentioned his cousin Ann Breadstreet or Bradstreet, and also Christopher Bradstreet, who may have been her husband.

Thomas leaves money to ‘my sister Finch’: this is Susan or Susanna Hawkins who married John Finch of Grovehurst, at Milton near Sittingbourne. They were the parents of Thomas’ nephew Clement Finch of Grovehurst, appointed as one of the overseers of the will. ‘My sister Hildesley’ is Ann Hawkins, the husband of ‘my loving brother William Hildesley’ of Little Stoke, Oxfordshire, also named as an overseer. I’ll discuss the Finches and Hildesleys, both of them well-known recusant families, in future posts.

I haven’t been able to find out anything further about the person Thomas Hawkins describes as ‘John Rookes my kinseman’. As for ‘my god sonne Thomas Crompton’, it’s possible he was a relative (son?) of Sir Thomas Crompton, the Member of Parliament and government officer, a number of whose family were said to be Catholic.

Pra del Valle in Padua by Canaletto (via wikimedia)

Thomas Hawkins makes a substantial bequest in his will to ‘my lovinge nephew John Kirton doctor of phisicke’. I’ve been unable to discover John Kirton’s precise connection to the Hawkins family. Given his surname, he might have been the son of one of Thomas’ sisters, but I haven’t found any trace of another surviving sister who might have married a man with the surname Kirton. Alternatively, John might have been related to Thomas Hawkins via his wife Elizabeth Smith: perhaps another Smith sister married a Kirton?

Interestingly, John Kirton seems to have studied medicine in Padua, Italy, and then to have been ‘incorporated’ at Oxford in 1633. There is a suggestion that Thomas Hawkins’ younger brother John, who was also a physician, followed a similar path, perhaps because completing his degree at Oxford would have meant taking the Oath of Allegiance. It appears that Padua was popular among Catholic students as an alternative to Oxford and Cambridge, partly for this reason. However, as Jonathan Woolfson explain in his book on English students at Padua in the Tudor period, there were other reasons for the city’s appeal: both Catholics and Protestants were drawn there because of its long tradition of welcoming foreign students, its reputation as a centre for humanist learning, and the fact that it existed outside the control of any civic or religious authority.

Probable likeness of Sir Robert Dudley, c. 1591 (via wikipedia)

John Kirton appears to have a had long association with Italy. He was physician to the explorer and cartographer Sir Robert Dudley, whom he assisted in his chemical experiments in Tuscany. After a colourful maritime career, Dudley had abandoned his family and left England in 1605 with his cousin and lover Elizabeth Southwell, who was disguised as a page. The couple declared that they had converted to Catholicism and Dudley married Elizabeth in Lyon in 1606, after receiving a papal dispensation, and then settled in Florence. Apparently John Kirton was still living in Florence in 1673, at the age of 70.

I’m not sure of the exact identity of the man whom Thomas Hawkins describes as ‘my deare friend Mr Thomas Chester’. He might be the Thomas Chester of Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, the Royalist, described in one source as ‘an old Cavalier’, who was fined and had his property sequestered during the Civil War for ‘having adhered to the Forces raised against the Parliament’.

In the previous post I wrote about the recusant poet and translator Sir Thomas Hawkins the younger of Nash Court, Boughton under Blean, Kent, who died in 1640. In this post I’m sharing my transcription of his will, and in the next post I’ll discuss what we can learn from it about Hawkins’ family and associates. (I’ve highlighted key names on their first appearance.)

In the name of God Amen the nyne and twentieth day of october one thousand sixe hundred thirty nyne And in the fyfteenth yeare of the Reygne of our most gracious Sovereigne Lord Kinge Charles of England I Sr Thomas Hawkins of Nash in the parish of Boughton under the Bleane in the County of Kent knight beinge not well in health but yet of perfect mynd & memorie for which I doe give most humble thanks to Almighty God) And well considering of the uncerteynty of mans life and especially to free my selfe in my last sickness from all worldly care that then I may bee wholly attentive to the good of my soule, do therefore make and ordayne this my last will and testamt in manner followeing & first I bequeath my soule into the hands of Allmighty God my Creator redeemer and sanctifier and my bodie to bee decently buried in the parish church of Boughton aforesd and neere as may bee to the burial places of the bodies of Sr Thomas Hawkins knight and dame Ann his wife my deceased deare & ever honord parents which I leave to the discretion of my executr hereafter named Imprimis I give to the poore people of the sayd parish of Boughton eight pounds in money to bee distributed amongst them ymmediately after my death at the discretion of myne executor. Item I give to the poore people of the parish of Heurnehill in the sayd countie three pounds to bee likewise distributed Item I hgive to the poore of the parish of Sr Sepulchre in London fower pounds Item I give & devise to my lovinge nephew John Kirton doctor of phisicke all those eleven closes bee the same more or lesse or severall grounds in closes of agrable [?] lands medows & pasture ground conteyninge together in the whole by estimacon one hundred and tenne acres or thereabouts situate lyeing or beinge within the severall parishes of Boughton under the bleane aforesd and Feaversham and Heurnehill or some or one of them in the countie of Kent three of which closes before menconed or more now are or late weare commonly called or known by the name of Knockemors and the residue of the same nowe are or late weare called or knowen by the severall names of Hockleton Hashfeild Bendleffeild the fower neare ould Bouldsy mead longe mead water mead and lillydowne meadowe or by what other name or names the same or any of them are otherwise called or knowen by with all the proffitts commodities and appurtenances to the sayd severall closes or enclosed grounds belonginge or appurtenayng unto the sayd John Kirton his Executors and assignes ymedtiatly from after my decease for the tearme of three score years thence next ensewinge upon condicon followeing, vizt Provided allwayes and my full intended meaning is that If my wellbeloved brother Richard Hawkins or his heirs shall within sixe months next after my decease pay unto the sayd John Kirton or to his Executor or Assignes the some of three hundred pounds of lawfull money of England Then and in such case my sayd wish[?] and desire of the sayd closes lands and tenemets unto the sayd John Kirton his Exeuctors and assignes shall cause determine and bee payd and that then my will and meaning is that the same closes lands and tenemets shall remayne and bee and I doe hereby devise bequeath and appoynt the same unto my sayd brother Richard Hawkins his heirs and assignes forever for the better performance of this my last will and testament. I give and bequeath to my neece Katherine Hawkins my diamond ringe of fower stones and a scarfe [?] Item I give and bequeath to Ann Breadstreet my Aunts daughter the yearely some of fifty two shillings & p Annm to bee weekly paid new [?] by twelve pence a weeke during her natural life Item I give and bequeath to my ould servant John Kennett fower pounds yearly and everie yeare duringe his natural life to bee yssueinge out of certeyne closes or grounds called the blacke marshes Johnson Croft and Crearneffeild [?] lyeinge in the parishes of Boughton and Seasalter or some of them in the sayd countie of Kent to bee payd at the twoe usuall feast dayes vizt the annuntiacon of the blessed virgin Marie And St Michaell th’archangell by twoe equall porcons the first payment thereof to begin at the first of the sayd feast dayes as shall next happen And ensewe After my death If the sayd John Kennett bee then living and for non payment thereof by the space of twentie dayes next after either of the sayd dayes of payment it shall be lawfull for the say(d) John Kennett or his assignes to enter into the sayd closes and grounds last menconed and to dystreyne for the same and to deteyne such dystresses as shall bee taken untill the sayd yearely payment of such part thereof as shall bee then due and all the arrearages thereof any bee shall be fully satisfied and payd Item I give unto John Rookes [?] my kinseman twentie pounds and to my cosen Ann Pettitt three pounds Item I give unto my nephew John Hawkins all my books in my studdy at London And at my house at Nash except the bookes hereafter particularly given Item I give unto my nephew Charles Hawkins all my musicke Bookes at London And at my house at Nash together with my viols Item I give unto my nephew Charles Hawkins my sister Finch five pounds to be bestowed in a peece of plate And to my sister Hildesley five poundes to be bestowed in a peece of plate Item I give twenty shillings a peece to each of my sister Finches children And to each of my syster Hildesleys children Item I give my mercator booke of mapps to my deare friend Mr Thomas Chester Item I give to everie one of my servants that shall bee dwelling with mee at the tyme of my death the sayd John Kennett excepted to each of them yxt [?] a peece over and above their wages I give to my cosen William Pettitt twentie shillings to bee bestowed in a ringe Item I give to my god sonne Thomas Crompton Item I give to William Blayne And his wife duringe their natural lives and the life of the longer liver of them three pounds yearely and everie yeare to bee yssueinge out of the foresaid chloses and grounds called the black marshes Johnsons Croft and bearnefields to bee payd at such dayes and with power to dystreyne for non payment of the same in such manner as is before limitted and appointed to and for John Kennett as aforesaid And I doe heerby make and ordayne my sayd wellbeloved brother Richard Hawkins sole executor of this my last will and testament desireinge him out of his love and affection to mee to see all things fully performed according to my will intent and meaning herein expressed. And I doe heerby revoke all former wills by mee heretofore made And I doe heerby make and desier my loving brother William Hildesley of Littlestocke in the county of Oxford Esquier and Clemment Finch of Grovehurst in the countie of Kent my nephew to bee overseers hereof and I doe give to either of them fourtie shillings in witness whereof I have to this my last will and testament beinge fower sheets to everie one of the same sheets subscribed my name And to the last sheete hereof have putt my seale the day and yere [?] first above written Thomas Hawkins Sealed subscribed and published by the sayd Sr Thomas Hawkins as his last will and testament in the presence of us William Forrest William Linsey John Ruck [?] John Comberford

What insights can we glean from the last will and testament of Sir Thomas Hawkins of Boughton under Blean, Kent, who died in 1617, a transcription of which I shared in the previous post? For example, does the will throw any light on Sir Thomas’ religious beliefs?

The opening lines of the will of Sir Thomas Hawkins

The explicitly ‘religious’ section of the will, the part dealing with the fate of the testator’s soul, before he gets down to the practical business of disposing of his property, is much longer than in many contemporary wills – nearly 400 words by my estimation. And it seems much less explicitly Catholic than other recusant wills. Indeed, in places the language is difficult to distinguish, at least to my untrained eyes, from that of many Protestant wills of the period, with its emphasis on the author’s wretched sinfulness, his ‘belief in god the sonne my onely Redeemer and Saviour by whose most previous death and bloudshedd both I and all mankynde else have meanes to be saved’ and the claim that he is ‘trusting assuredlye that in the precious bloudshedd and passion of my sweete Saviour Christ to be one of them that shall inherit his everlasting kingdome which god grannte for his sweete sonnes sake Jesus Christ’. A later sentence seems to express an almost Calvinistic hope that Sir Thomas will be ‘saved amonge his elect which god grant even for his sonnes sake Jesus Christ’.

How are we to explain this? Firstly, we need to remember that historians warn against over-interpeting will preambles. Eamon Duffy has a useful discussion of this issue in The Stripping of the Altars(2005). He writes: ‘[P]reambles which simply declare trust in the merits or Passion of Christ cannot be assumed to be Protestant or even “reformist”.’ Quoting an example of a sixteenth-century will that, like Sir Thomas Hawkins’, emphasises salvation through the merits of Christ’s Passion, Duffy adds: ‘There is nothing necessarily Protestant about this sort of formula; as a matter of fact…many wills containing similar sentiments were made by Catholics in England before, during, and after the Reformation’. Elsewhere Duffy warns against assuming ‘that pre-Reformation Catholics needed to be told that Christ was in a unique and special sense their divine Saviour’. Duffy and other revisionist historians of the Reformation have demonstrated that there was more continuity between pre-Reformation Catholic spirituality and post-Reformation Protestant piety than some have imagined: indeed, the latter should be seen as emerging from developments in the former, rather than simply appearing out of thin air.

A second point to make is that wills were legal documents and not intended as a confessional expression of personal belief, as we would understand it. Wills often tended to draw on stock, ‘ready-made’ formulations, especially if they were composed by, or with the assistance of, a lawyer or scrivener. There may have been good reasons why, in a public text of this kind, a known recusant like Sir Thomas Hawkins chose to emphasise certain aspects of his faith and place less emphasis on others.

Parish church and surroundings, Boughton under Blean (via flickr.com)

It may seem surprising, too, that Hawkins decrees that his body should be buried in the parish church at Boughton, and that he bequeaths money to the local vicar. With historical hindsight, it is tempting, but rather anachronistic, to see Catholicism and Anglicanism in this period as completely separate structures. From the perspective of Jacobean Catholics like Sir Thomas Hawkins, it was less than a century since the English Church had broken away from the universal Catholic Church of which it had been a part for a millennium. Indeed, in Sir Thomas’ own lifetime, under Queen Mary, that breach had been healed, albeit temporarily, and it was the dearest hope of Catholics that it might happen again, perhaps under a different monarch (there had been some expectations of this, or at least of greater toleration, before the accession of James, but these had been cruelly dashed).

Against this background, the local parish church was not yet seen as the territory of an alien sect, but as the historical home of the universal Church, temporarily occupied by a schismatic faction. Not only that, but noble families like the Hawkinses could visit the parish church and see the tombs and monuments erected to their Catholic ancestors on prominent display: the monument to Sir Thomas Hawkins the elder is still one of the most best-known features of Boughton church. Why should they not expect to be buried in the same place, and with the same degree of pomp, as their predecessors?

At the same time, it’s worth noting that Sir Thomas’ bequest of thirteen shillings to the vicar of Boughton is recompense ‘for my tythes forgotten’. Forgotten – or deliberately withheld? It’s important to remember that members of the Hawkins family were regularly indicted for not conforming to the established Church. The parish records of Boughton from 1587 declare that ‘Mr [sic] Thomas Hawkins the elder [Sir Thomas’ father] hath not received the communion at Easter last past.’ A similar accusation is made against ‘Mr. Thomas Hawkins the younger, and his wife’ and various members of their household, including ‘Greene a schoolmaster in Mr Hawkins’ house’. In the records for 1603 we read: ‘We present Mr. Thomas Hawkins and his wife…..for that they have not received the communion this last Easter within our parish at Boughton Blean’. In the years following Sir Thomas’ death, there are records of numerous similar accusations being made against his sons and their families.

I’ve not been able to discover anything about William Place, the vicar of Boughton from 1589 to 1637. However, I’ve discovered that a later vicar, Samuel Smith, had definite Laudian (i.e. ‘high church’) sympathies and that these, together with some rash words about Parliament, got him into trouble during the Civil War.

If caution about expressing his Catholic beliefs too openly in a public document lay behind Sir Thomas’ published aspirations for his eternal soul, then similar motives may have led him to exclude two of his children from his will. There is no mention in the document of Sir Thomas’ son Henry Hawkins, who had fled abroad to join the Jesuits two years before his father made his will, and who would return to England, only to be captured and sent back into exile a year after his father’s death. Nor is there any reference to Sir Thomas’ daughter Bennet or Benedicta, who had been professed as a Benedictine nun five years earlier, at the age of twenty-five. Benedicta, whose name in religion was Sister Barbara Benedict, had paid a dowry of 3800 florins, presumably provided by her family, on entering her Belgian convent. It’s likely that Henry Hawkins had received similar material support. Since being a Catholic priest and joining a Catholic religious order were criminal offences in England, I assume that aiding and abetting priests and religious were also proscribed. Hence, perhaps, Sir Thomas’ silence in his will about these members of his family.

Those children of Sir Thomas Hawkins and his wife Ann (who I assume predeceased him, since she is not mentioned) who are referred to in the will are as follows: Thomas Hawkins, his eldest son, who is named as ‘my sole and onelie Executor’; John Hawkins, ‘doctor of physicke’; Ziriach or Cyriac Hawkins, ‘my youngest sonne’; ‘my sonne Richard Hawkins’, the husband of Mary Hawkins née Langworth; ‘my daughter Susanne Fynch the wife of John Finch Esquier’; and ‘Anne Hilsley [or Hildesley] my daughter the wife of William Hilsley’. We shall have more to say about all of these in later posts. Also missing from this list is Sir Thomas’ son Daniel, who I believe died either in infancy or as a young man.

Other relatives bequeathed money or property in Sir Thomas’ will include his sister ‘Jonne [Joan?] Brewer, the wife of Thomas Brewer, who may have been the Kent landowner of that name whose property was later sequestered on account of his recusancy. Also mentioned in the will is Mary Pettit, widow of Henry Pettit, who I believe to have been Sir Thomas’ brother-in-law, the son and heir of Cyriac Pettit. William Pettit, another beneficiary of the will, was probably Henry’s son. As for Sir Thomas Hawkins’ ‘cosen’ Anne Breadstreete, she may have been the husband of the Christopher Bradstreet, named as a tenant of one of Sir Thomas’ properties later in the will. I’ve found a christening record for a Christopher Bradstreet, son of Christopher, in Boughton in 1615, though it’s unclear how the Bradstreets were related to the Hawkins family.

The Roper family chapel in Lynsted church (via photo4me.com)

‘Katherine Rooper the wife of Henry Rooper’, who is to receive ‘a double soveraigne of gould of the valewe of two and twentie shillings’, was almost certainly a member of the famous Roper family of Kent that I’ve discussed before. Henry Rooper or Roper may have been the son of Anthony Roper of Faringham, and it’s likely he belonged to the branch of the family that lived at Linsted Lodge near Sittingbourne and would later include the barons of Teynham. It’s perhaps relevant that Henry Hawkins, S.J, Sir Thomas’ son, would dedicate his History of St Elizabeth, published in 1632, to Lady Mary Roper, daughter of Christopher Roper, the second Baron Teynham. Lady Mary ended her life as the abbess of a Benedictine convent in Ghent. I’ve also read that the Ropers were connected with the Pettits of Boughton by marriage.

Finally, Sir Thomas Hawkins’ will provides a reminder of the family’s considerable wealth. We learn from the will that Sir Thomas owned property in a number of parishes throughout Kent besides Boughton, including nearby Hernhill, Selling, Chilham and Faversham, and further afield in Whitstable, Seasalter, Graveney, Broomfield and Leeds (near Maidstone). Clearly, recusancy was not necessarily incompatible with extensive land ownership, and not all recusant families suffered the sequestration of their property.

In the posts that follow, I’ll be exploring the lives of some of Sir Thomas Hawkins’ illustrious offspring.

Sir Thomas Hawkins of Nash Court, Boughton under Blean, Kent, died in April 1617. He was the father of a Jesuit priest, a Benedictine nun, a translator of recusant texts, and a physician, as well as being the father-in-law of Mary Langworth, whose family I have been attempting to trace over the past few weeks. Thomas Hawkins’ last will and testament, written in the month of his death, is a useful starting-point for exploring the illustrious Hawkins family. In this post, I’m reproducing my transcription of the will, and in the next post I’ll discuss what we can learn from it. I’ve kept to the original spelling and punctuation as far as possible. A question mark [?] indicates uncertainty about an individual word. Where words or passages are completely illegible, I’ve indicated this in parentheses. For ease of reading, key names are emboldened thus when first mentioned.

Nash Court in the 18th century

In the name of God: Amen: The First of Aprill 1617. And in the yeares of our Soveraigne Lord Kinge James by the grace of god of England France and Ireland defender of the faith the Fyftenth and of his Ma:ties Raigne over Scotland the Fyftith I Thomas Hawkins of the parish of Boughton under the Bleane in the Countie of Kent knight beinge in perfect memorie thankes be to Almightie god by calling to mynde the brittlenes and the instabilitie of mans lyfe with the diversitie of accidents wherein mans life is placed and pondering with my selfe the certeinetie of death and most uncerteinetie of the tyme and hower thereof and fearing the sodane occasion of death doe in institute make and ordaine this my present testament and last will in manner and forme hearafter following First and principallie I hould it to be the parte of everie Christian man to make a trewe veritall [?] of his faith wherein he lives and wherein I trust in Almightie god to end this my most wicked and unstable life First and principallye I do beleive in god the Father Almightie maker of heaven and earth who of nought hath made me and all mankind and whatsoever that hath beinge and in god the sonne my onely Redeemer and Saviour by whose most previous death and bloudshedd both I and all mankynde else [?] have meanes to be saved and in god the holie Ghost the comforter of my soule and all minde which as they are three persons soe are they but one only god at whose handes I instantly aske pardon of all my synnes past trusting assuredlye that in the precious bloudshedd and passion of my sweete Saviour Christ to be one of them that shall inherit his everlasting kingdome which god grannte for his sweete sonnes sake Jesus Christ Item I give and most humblie bequeath my wretched soule to Almightie god the Father of heaven my Creator and to his onelie sonne Jesus Christ my Redemer and to the holie ghost my spiritually comforter three parsons and one onely god hopinge to have full remission of all my sinns and sinfull life past by the meritts and death of Christes passion and to be saved amonge his elect which god grant even for his sonnes sake Jesus Christ And as touching the interment or buriall of this my sinfull bodie my desire is (yf with conveinencie it may be) for that as I am ignorant of the tyme of my death soe am I alsoe ignorante of the place where I shall end this my wretched pilgrimage of life to be buried in such place of the North chancell in the parish of Boughton under the Bleane as to my Executor shalbe thought meete And that there or els where it shall please Almightie god that my bodie shall rest to have some stone or monument as to my executor shalbe thought meete and convenient Item I will and bequeath to the vicar of the parish of Boughton for the tyme beinge for my tythes forgotten thirteen shillings fower pence Item I give to the parish church of Boughton twentie shillings and my will meaning and desire is that my Executor shall see me honestlie buried without any much showe or pompe at the discretion of my said Executor Item I give to the poore house houlden of the parish of Boughton and Herne Hill the some of five poundes vizt Three poundes to the poore of the parish Boughton And Fortie shillinges to the poore of the parish of Herne Hill by twelve pence a house to the poorest of the people their at the discretion of my Executor Item I will and bequeath to the poorest of the parishes of Boughton and Hernehill one quarter of wheate to be distributed by peckes [?] to the said poore poore for the space of seaven yeares next after my death at the Feast of the nativitie of Christ Fower bushels to the poorest householders of the parish of Boughton and other fower bushells of wheate to the poorest householders of the parish of hernhill and likewise at the Feast of Easter fower bushells of maulte to the poorest of the householders of the parish of Boughton And fower bushells of maulte to the poorest of the parish of hernehill yerelie for the space of seaven yeare next after my decease, Item I will and give to my sonne John Hawkins dtor of phisicke the some of fortie poundes to paye his debtes which to be paid within three monethes after my decease Item I will and give unto Ziriach Hawkins my youngest sonne the some of tenne pounds to be likewise payde within the space of three monethes next after my decease Item I will and give to my daughter Susanne Fynch the wife of John Finch Esquier the some of tenne poundes of lawfull English money Item I will and give to Mary Hawkins the wife of my sonne Richard Hawkins the some of tenne pounds Item I will and give to Anne Hilsley my daughter the wife of William Hilsley of the countie of Oxon gent the some of tenne pounds Item I will and give to my deare sister Jonne Brewer the wife of Thomas Brewer gent the some of five poundes thirteen shillings fower pence Item I will and give to Mary Pettitt the widow of Henry Pettitt Esquier over and above all debtes due by her to me the some of fortie shillings Item I will and give to Katherine Rooper the wife of Henry Rooper a double soveraigne of gould of the valewe of two and twentie shillings Item I will and give to William Pettit gent one other double soveraigne of gould of the valewe of two and twentie shillings Item I will and give to each of my grandchildren vizt to Thomas Hawkins the sonne of Richard Hawkins the some of five poundes and to Susan Finch the daughter of John Finch the some of five poundes and the rest the children betweene my sonne and daughter Finch and the children betweene my sonne Richard Hawkins and Marie his wife to each of them one fortie shillings a peece in goulde to be payd to them or to their parents within the space of one whole yeare next after my decease to be putt out by their said parentes to such use or uses as in their discretions shalbe thought meete for the better increase thereof which said sonne with their interest they to have at the age of twentie yeares Item I will and give to my cosen Anne Breadstreete one peece of gould of the value of twentie shillings and doe remitt to her husband and her three pounds which they owe me for halfe a yeares rent Item I will and bequeath to Godlie Scrymsby one twentie shilling peece of gould over and above her wages and alsoe a mourning gowne Item I will and give to Thomazine Lott widdowe a blackgowne and twentie shillings of goulde Item I will and give to Richard Robinson of the parish of Boughton the some of thirteen shillings fower pence a yeare duringe his natural lyfe to be payde by my Executor everie halfe yeare vizt five shillings eight pence at the feast of St Michael and six shillings eight pence at the Annunciation of our Ladie by even portions Item I will and give to my servant Andrewe Pett over and above his wages due to him the some of twentie shillings in gould Item I will and give to Ellen my chambermayde the some of thirtie shillings over and above her wages due Item I give to Marie my cookemayde over and above her wages the some of twentie shillings Item I give to James my man over and above is wages tenne shillings Item I will and give to John my boye and Hamonde my boye each of them tenne shillings a peece All other my goodes whatsoever playe money Jewells household stuffe corne cattle which I have within the Realme of England and not devised by this my last will and testament I will give and bequeath to my eldest sonne Thomas Hawkins Esquier whome I make my sole and onelie Executor of this my last will and testament In witnes whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name By me Thomas Hawkins.

This is the last will and testament of me Thomas Hawkins knight of the parish of Boughton under the Bleane in the countie of Kent concerning the dispotition of all my landes tenements and hereditaments which I have in the parishes of Boughton under the Bleane Feversham, Hernehill, Chilham, Sellinge Whitstable cosine [?] Bleane, Herne, Ledes, Bromffeild Graveney Seasalter and the parish of Sannct Paule neare and without the walls of the cittie of Canterburie or else where in the countie of Kent Item I will and give to my [illegible words] rent of fortie poundes by the yeare issuing and goinge out after time [illegible words] of May in the tenure or occupation of Thomas Porredge, Matthew Helie [?] and Anthony [illegible name] which containe fortie Acres more or lesse as also out of one parcel of meadowe called Forde conteynynge fower teene Acres and alsoe out of one other peece or parcel of lande called Denlie less [?] All which prcells of meadowe marshes and upland groundes are lyinge and beinge in the parish of Heronhill which land Annuitie or annual rent I will and give to my saide sonne John Hawkins and to his assignes for and duringe the whole terme of his natural lyfe yearely to be payde vizt at the Feast of the Annunciation of the blessed ladie St. Marie the virgine and St. Michaell the Archangel by even and equall portions to be payd or within one and twentie dayes after either of the said feastes in which yt ought to be payd the first payment whereof to begyn at the first feast of the aforesaid feastes that shall happen next after my decease provided allwayes that yf the said Annuities or annual Rent of fortie pounds by the yere or any parte thereof be behinde and unpayde after the tyme aforesaid beinge lawfullie demanded That then and from thence forth it shall be lawful to and for the saide John Hawkins my sonne or to his assigne or assignes to enter and distraine into all or any parcel thereof before charged with this annuitie or annuall rent and to and for the arrerages thereof yf any be And the same distresse or distresses be lawfullie taken leade driven or carried awaye and yt to hold irreplegabelly [?] untill the said annuitie or annual rent of fortie pounds by the yere with the arrearages yf any be, be to the said John Hawkins or his assignes fullie satisfied contented and payd provided allways that yf my said sonne John shall alienate sell assigne or sett over this annuitie or annual rent then that he the said John Hawkins my sonne shalbe contented and pleased to lett my son Thomas Hawkins have it for a valuable consideration or whoe else shall for the tyme beinge stand remayne and be my Eldest heire male Nevertheless my will and meaninge is That yf yt shall happen my said sonne John Hawkins to marrie or take a wife That then yt shalbe lawfull for him to make a Joynture of the said fortie pounds [illegible word] Or any parcel thereof as he shall thinck fitt duringe her natural lyfe to stand good to all intents and purposes as if yt were oute of landes of Inheritance Item I will and give to my sonne Ziriach Hawkins my youngest sonne all that my mannor or mansion howse called Burges with all the howses edifices orchards gardens yards lying in the parishes of Leedes and Brumfeilde withall the landes meadowes pastures thereto belonginge and and usuallie [?] occupied lyinge and beinge in the parishes of Leedes and Bromefeild nowe in the tenure or occupation of Christopher Woullett or of his assignes Item I will and give to my said sonne Ziriach all that my howse or tenement called Younges lyinge and beinge in the parish of Boughton under the Bleane now in the tenure or occupation of Christopher Bradstreete or his assignes together with all the buildings edifices thereto belonginge togeather with all the landes woodes or underwoods tymber and trees thereuppon growing All which said mannors farmes and landes I give to my said sonne Ziriach and to the heires males of his bodie lawfullie befotten And for want of sure [?] heires males of his bodie lawfully begotten to be and remayne unto the eldest heire male of me the said Sir Thomas Hawkins and soe to remayne be and goe according to a former deede of intaile of other landes of me the said Sir Thomas Hawkins formerlie intailed to my eldest sonne Thomas Hawkins Esquier which said deede of intaile was upon the assurance of landes to my said sonne Thomas Hawkins upon the marriadge of his wife Item concerning the disposition of all the rest of my mannors Lands Tenements and hereditaments marshes fresh and salte woodes and underwoodes that I have within the countie of Kente or els where not formerlie willed or conveyed I will and give the same to Thomas Hawkins my eldest sonne And to the heire males of his bodie lawfullie begotten And for want of such heir males to stande remayne and be according to an anntient [?] intayle of other my landes formerlie intayled to my sonne Thomas Hawkins at the tyme of his marriage. By me Thomas Hawkins witnesses to this my last will and testament aforesaid whereto I the said Thomas Hawkins have to everie sheete thereof set to my hand date as aforesaid in the presence of William Burgoyne Willm Hildesley Richard Hawkins.